To "Americans for Prosperity" Capitalism Is a Love Story
The Americans for Prosperity Foundation's "National Defending the American Dream Summit" held last weekend at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Virginia was an assemblage whose only distinguishing feature was its astonishing homogeneity both in thought and in demography. When they were not loudly applauding President Obama's (and America's) failure to win the 2016 Olympic games, high-fiving each other and laughing, they were raptly listening to speaker after right-wing speaker reinforce all their assumptions about how the world works.
The Ann Coulter clone, Laura Ingraham, (who called Megan McCain "plus size" for daring to criticize right-wing talk radio) was one of the speakers; so were Newt Gingrich and CNBC's Larry Kudlow. They threw red meat to the AFPers by venting their hatred of government, taxes, Democrats, the environment, regulations, and President Obama. Kudlow got a huge ovation with the applause line: "Obama doesn't know a bloody thing about economics." He then launched into a laughable disquisition on the "successes" of supply-side economics.
It's amazing that even after the entire Wall Street house of cards collapsed a year ago requiring the public sector to rescue the private sector these fierce advocates of free-market fundamentalism can still show their faces in public, let alone gather to rail against the evils of the government that saved their asses.
But what do you expect from an organization that Koch Industries bankrolls just as it once bankrolled the John Birch Society?
I got to thinking about how all those people who despise their own elected government made their way to Arlington for their little rally. Those Americans for Prosperity "delegates" arrived for their convention using roads and airports the government built and maintains. They flew knowing the government would keep them safe through its hundreds of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees. They could count on getting to their destination knowing the plane had undergone government inspection and was deemed mechanically safe so that no AFPer would end up in a fireball due to faulty planes. The government's air traffic controllers made sure their planes didn't collide during take off, landing, or in mid-air. They got to their hotels in taxis that couldn't charge exorbitant rates because they'd lose their government licenses if they did. When they turned on the showers and faucets in their hotel rooms they used water the government brought to them through a network of public works projects, maintained by government employees. They ate at restaurants where E. coli, Salmonella, and other food-born pathogens are held at bay by government regulations and inspectors. And when they signed the contracts to book their flights and accommodations they knew that the government's courts would uphold their rights if the other party reneged.
Yet they hate government.
And then I thought about the thousands of other human beings whose labor make life possible for these libertarian fanatics who view themselves as atomized individuals disconnected from society. I thought about the people who designed the planes they flew on, the roads they drove on, the building they held their rally in. I thought of the people who changed the sheets in their hotel rooms or brought them beverages or cleaned their toilets and carried their bags and were stationed ready to provide services of all kinds. And I thought what would the AFPers do -- yes, even the billionaire David Koch -- if these people withheld their labor? How could these AFPers in their free market, go-it-alone fantasy world accomplish anything if it weren't for the labor of all of those thousands of people they take for granted? And the biggest villains at the AFP convention (other than the government and Obama) were labor unions. The anti-union venom that spewed forth from the podium sounded like Pinkertons readying themselves to fire into a rally of the Knights of Labor. And why not? Who's better suited to play the role of our era's Henry Clay Frick than David Koch, the seventh richest man in America?
It was a convention hall filled with "Mister Potters" from Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. The speakers I saw in two dimensions on C-SPAN sounded to me to be greed driven, selfish and self-centered, with a smug certitude about how the world works that only a life of privilege can bestow. The love of possessions is like a disease among them. Yet they also possessed the annoying, whiny tone of the aggrieved "victim" as if they haven't been in power for the past thirty years; as if their free market fundamentalist ideas have not been tried already only to fail miserably. To these AFP fantasists there was no Savings and Loan crisis where deregulation cost American taxpayers $150 billion. There was no Long-Term Capital Management bailout. There was no Enron and Worldcom and Tyco that cost thousands of shareholders their retirements. There was no Argentine and Russian currency crises. No "lost decade" in Japan. No dot.com bubble. No housing bubble and collapse. And no "troubled assets." No, for the AFPers all of this pain and suffering we're now experiencing, all of the unemployment, all of the foreclosures and bankruptcies -- all of it -- is somehow the government's fault or the environmentalists' fault or the labor unions' fault. It's everybody else's fault but their own; and it's certainly not the fault of their beloved capitalism. And that last point is the one with the richest irony: the AFP worldview calls itself "libertarian" and "conservative" but refuses to take any personal responsibility for anything.
Follow Joseph A. Palermo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/N/A
Brian Levin, J.D.: Who's On First?: Haters, Conspiracists and the Conspiracists Who Hate Them
With unemployment in the United States at a 26 year high of 9.8% and the UK not far behind, a sector of the economy in both nations is booming -- extremism.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Great article, Mr. Palermo, with the bitter humor one has to have around this myopic viewpoint, but also the telling thrusts that emphasize the disconnection between them and a world with a social contract and responsibility to something other than your personal greed and your belief that you're poor suffering victims of ACORN, voter fraud, illegal aliens, and all the others who make up the Other who voted them out of their birthright, running the country.
I remember Harold Bloom complaining about The School of Resentment, by which he meant any group that has actually suffered in history, such as women, people of color. Later, just like these AFP'ers he was crying that he was the victim because he was white, male, and Western.
He shared the whine of these AFPers -- they get to be victims, but nobody else does.
Spoken like a history professor, who more than likely has never generated any of his own dollars, and lives off of the largess of capitalism-through the college payments the capitalists who send their kids to the college he works at.
Did you ever stop to consider, Professor, that the health food inspectors which you crow about all are paid from the fruits of taxing capitalists? Would we indeed have roads to drive upon if it were not from taxing the money which flows between us?
How is trading mortgages which were backed by the government, and thus seen as the ultimate Other People's money, in any way a failure of the "free market" as you crow?
By definition, people trading goods where they can be personally liable for them is the definition of a free market. To have the government both back Freddie and Fannie, and then push banks through the Community Reinvestment Act to lower lending standards AT THE SAME TIME, is hardly a "free market", is it?
"Associate Professor, History, CSU, Sacramento. Bachelor's degrees in Sociology and Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz, Master's degree in History from San Jose State University, Master's degree and Doctorate in American History from Cornell University. Expertise includes political history, presidential politics, presidential war powers, social movements of the 20th century, movements of the 1960s, civil rights, and foreign policy history."
This is not your run of the mill history professor!
There can be no doubt that Dr. Palermo has achieved greatly in his field. This level of success makes it all the more shocking that he just doesn't seem to get it.
I know that correlation doesn't equal causation, but, the most prosperous nations in the world are also the most free.
It is because of the capitalists that we, even the most poor among us, have the standard of living we have. If one were to travel to most of globe (outside of Europe and parts of Southeastern Asia) the people there would tell you that we don't really have poor people in the United States.
Our poor have a standard of living the poor of the rest of the world wouldn't dare dream of. When measured against the world, our poor have vastly superior housing, food, water, basic sanitation, security, and access to health care.
Their basic needs taken care of, the poor here further have amenities unheard of for most of the worlds poor. Our poor have televisions, automobiles, internet access, video game systems and more.
Destroying free enterprise won't make the poor any better off, just more numerous.
Thank you hippie chucker --you know what they say about "winning" debates on the web and Special Olympics -- you are so wrong because I'm the first in my family to ever go to college and I worked in factories and painted houses and construction and even washed dishes, went to college on LBJ financial aid, etc. You've been listening to too much Hannity -- get real man, DERIVATIVES, go read about them.
ooo, good answer, Dr. P.; glad you didn't let him get away with that stuff.
Joseph- the reason they can deny the complete failure of the policies they advocate is because the pain & suffering doesn't really touch them....sure, they might have taken a hit in the markets- some of them will be cutting back on trips abroad this season.They really don't know that hard working people are selling their own blood to buy groceries.
itolduso, you are so correct -- I find it absolutely sociopathic that these people can pretend that the human suffering all around them has nothing to do with them -- I'd hate to sound like a "Marxist" because Beck and David Horowitz would come gunning for me (I wish they would but I am not that important teaching working class kids at a public college) -- but Karl Marx, you know, that 19th century guy who wrote some books, said that a system based on greed and selfishness would spawn humans who were greedy and selfish -- well, here we are. (read The German Ideology -- I know it's old romantic stuff, but hey, why not read it? Don't we read enough Arthur Laffer and Milton Friedman??) Ho Hum. Bowling shoes and the Special Olympics, but, but Clinton . . .
I might add that even Alan Greenspan admitted to the "flaws" in his worldview -- I wish Kudlow could do so.
I really think it is too bad we can't negotiate with the right wing fringe to give them a state to set up their free market paradise. Idaho might be a good choice, it is already pretty right wing, rugged, and it has nearby states that the progressives can move to. Texas or South Carolina would probably work better though. They both have a long history of succession desires, and they have a coastline so they won't feel "trapped by the US."
Once that state exists, all the free market and right wing folks can go there, and we can have our country back.
Aaror, yes, and Alan Greenspan could be their king.
Mr. Palermo mentions that Koch Industries has, in previous decades, financed the John Birch Society (JBS). In 1961, the FBI received numerous inquiries regarding comments made by Fred Koch (the father of the sons who currently are financing Americans For Prosperity).
"The Bureau has, of course, been cognizant over a period of time of the many fanatical right-wing anti-Communist organizations which are presently spreading widely throughout the country and of their utterly absurd viewpoints. For your information, I am attaching copies of letters dated March 6 and 8, 1961 from (names deleted) which typify the absolute confusion and lack of confidence in American institutions and one's fellow man being caused by representatives of such organizations." [HQ 62-104401-789, March 15, 1961, D.C. Morrell to C.D. DeLoach].
One of those letters concerned Fred Koch, a founding member of the JBS and a JBS National Council member from Wichita KS.
Koch had made what the FBI considered inflammatory comments re: U.S. government complicity in the "communist conspiracy" operating in our country.
Fred Koch had stated in speeches that U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was in collusion with the Soviets, and he had not been shot down by the Soviets. Instead, he landed safely and was paid by the Soviet government with our government's knowledge!
ernie, thanks for the info! It's worst than I thought.
You have to admit, this group of anti-American corporate stooges naming themselves "Americans for Prosperity" is pretty funny in an ironic post-modern sort of way.
They need to go live in a shantytown in some unincorporated part of some rural county. Let them PROVE how rugged they are, how they can do for themselves as long as the government doesn't interfere. Then and only then will anything they say have any credibility.
I take offense at this post.
Why is it a negative that the event is all-white? If a blogger were to negatively comment that an event was all-black, wouldn't that be offensive?
I have read Dr. Palermo's posts for quite sometime, and this isn't the first time he disparaged a group for being too white for his taste.
I take offense at your offense. So there.
I explained why I thought Dr. Palermo's post was offensive.
Can you explain why you think mine is offensive?
The point that he is making is that everyone in the group was white, because folks who are not white are not welcome.
If one of my black friends took me to their church (the last bastion of segregation in many places), I would be a curiosity but not a threat. Now imagine taking a black friend to your church in the deep south...
That said, this group would probably have been ok with a black person if they either had impeccable conservitive credentials (Clarance Thomas, Steele, but not Colin Powel), or had been filthy rich.
I'm not "post" anything. Millionaire white men have had it pretty good historically I just think it's silly to hear them whine like they're "victims." For me it's an issue of class more than race anyway. When America becomes a classless society then I'll become "post."
Great blog Joseph . . . totally agree . . .
See K.J. Dwyer's Profile
Brilliant piece, Joe. Great insights.
I especially enjoyed:
" . . . I thought about the thousands of other human beings whose labor make life possible for these libertarian fanatics who view themselves as atomized individuals disconnected from society."
That was one of the best turns of phrase to describe this faction I've ever heard or read.
I'm sure after their political rally, they all went home to their gated communities, turned on Fox News and relaxed with a nice cocktail as Sean Hannity and others told them exactly what they wanted to hear, completely oblivious to the fact that it's pure B.S.
The loader we yell, the more they insulate. Maybe when the walls of their gated communities get high and thick enough, we can lock them in and throw away the key.
Thank you KJ for your comment - gated communities is right -- I've seen them.
Joseph is always good, but my favorite phrase comes from Adam Smith. "All for ourselves and nothing for other people, seems in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind." I love the term "vile maxim." And then, at the end of the paragraph* he gives us hope."for the gratification of the most childish, the meanest, and the most sordid of all vanities, they gradually bartered their whole power and authority."
Aren't we seeing that now?
*Adam Smith, the Wealth of Nations, Book III, chapter IV
Tim Phillips had some real nasty things to say about Michael Moore too one night that produced uproarious laughter among the AFPers.
Totally on point. I guess "Love" really is blind.
100% Agreement.
Most of the libertarians I've met worked for the government. How is that for irony?
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
